Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

Picture by gamecrate.com

Director: Aleksander Bach

Writers: Skip Woods (Screenplay), Michael Finch (Screenplay), and story by Skip Woods.

Cast: Rupert Friend (Agent 47), Hannah Ware (Katia), Zachary Quinto (John Smith), Ciaran Hinds (Litvenko), Angelababy (Diana), Dan Bakkedahl (Sanders).

The Hitman video game revolves around agent 47, a cloned assassin. 47 has clean kills, proving himself as the deadliest assassin, and basically is in demand for his set of skills. The game begins with 47 escaping a highly guarded sanitarium where he is guided by an unknown guardian of some kind, instructing him in every way. Afterwards, 47 now working for the ICA (International, Contract, Agency) with Diana Burnwood as the handler, the team make a name for themselves, he becomes the man to get the job done.
After completing various missions and researching his own past, 47 finds out that the sanitarium where he had stayed was a front for a cloning facility. The lead scientist ordered the hits, to protect himself, and so the scientist created a series of clones to kill 47, they were code named 48.  Needless to say the game revealed many things, and one important aspect within the game was the structure, and build up, the development, and the progression of the story was the key to it's success. The Hitman is a stealth game, 47 is dropped in many different situations that brought him to where he is, the character is developed carefully, the past is even now filled with mystery, more than just a killer. Video game based films lack so much, because the industry wants a quick money, but all they really  needed was a story.  The Hitman story is so good, granted it is a video game, but the complexity of the game, made it  more than your typical story. The Hitman series should if had trilogy in mind, the filmmakers needed something to write about, they had it, but what went wrong?

The film starts off with an organization called the Syndicate, they're scanning, searching for Dr. Litvenko (Ciaran Hinds). The special effects kicks in, visuals that are pretty amazing, high tech like gadgets, a woman by the name of Katia Van Dees (Hannah Ware). Tech like this is almost like having Microsoft and Apple joining forces. The target is located, somehow Katia is connected to Dr. Litvenko, i guess knowing she is his daughter is a bit out of the realm of reality, Nah! that would never happen. Like any predictable evil organization they track the target and send John Smith (Zachery Quinto), up to this point the clones were numbers, but to bring in some secrecy, they used a stupid name. The evil organization wants the doctor or anyone connected to him so that they could continue the cloning program, making super assassins, blah! blah! blah! and they will take over the world, so they could have the control politically, and more. Impressive script, in fact it was so good i wanted to vomit in my mouth.
Katia is the Doctor's daughter, and she is 90, yes her name is 90 an advanced version of 47, a faster, killing machine, but in her case she uses her advancements for running. In the meantime, she has an urge to find a man, which is her father, but somehow another agent, or in this case a guy named John Smith (Zachery Quinto) meets up with her, and tells her about her father, and he is the guy she is looking for.  The special effects kick in just like the Force, it calls to her, her eyes go crazy, she sweats, well, maybe not, but she looks weird, and then sees things before they happen, almost like someone in an insane asylum. So this guy who calls himself John (Quinto) tells her that an assassin will come for her, and will kill her if she does not go with him. Alas! here comes 47 (Rupert Friend). The rest of the film is running from Smith, fighting, gun play, more fighting. They only used some of the story from the game, i guess a video game isn't good enough for their story, in fact, a well developed character would make you millions, but the action looks cool, and everyone will dig it!

I gave a brief summery on the 47 character, if only the film would've used plot points from the game, and it did some, but it wasn't enough. The action was pointless, everything from the start really made no sense. The Hollywood came right out, instead of making a smooth movie, it made a fast pace action film with a good plot, but everything was out of wack. The characters had no connections with each other, and the script really had no substance, just an outline of something good, but when the characters interacted, it was a done deal, everything fell a part. Katia (Hannah Ware) was one of the main characters, but yet she felt far away from the other cast. 47 had some direction over his actions but, yet his story was bland unlike the video game, where he was more than a killer, a man, more than a clone. So, when it came time to meet Katia, and 47 had made his decision not kill her, why not open up the story a bit, i guess Hollywood made the wrong decision, and went with the none stop action. The whole John Smith super killer, was pointless, and then the character turned out to be a bad guy, 47 was not the bad guy, even though he was dressed like one. Wow! what a twist, in fact i really didn't care who was what, i just wanted it to end. Remember the scene where he was in the United States Embassy, 47 was captured, or at least let himself get captured in order to get to Katia. The way he addressed his set of skills, the way they had the sniper rife, present in front of 47, i knew he would use the rife to escape.  The film was very predictable, and that is a problem the writers, producers should've addressed. Have a meeting about the story, if they would've used the game's story, pace the film, and despite 47 being a clone, have him look, feel like a real man in a desperate situation, maybe just maybe the film would've succeeded.

The film should've gone in one direction, find the girl with the nifty powers, kill the Smith guy, tone down some of the action, edit some scenes that are part of 47's past. Imagine having a film that could connect both protagonist together, and somehow the audience needs to feel the frustration of the Syndicate, but instead we got a big budget film with a B budget story, and by the way the action killed me. I would've preferred an old Western than the action in Agent 47. Another reason why this film failed in the box office, and as a fan of the game, this version was horrible, but the actors are not the ones at fault. The acting was good, but the script was horrible, and when you have script issues, the film will fail, no matter who you have playing the characters. Like i mentioned earlier, about the story in the game, the main character was used, manipulated from the beginning, it took time for 47 to become the deadliest assassin for hire. The film didn't have the chance to even hint on that. The cloning plot should've been a secret, make the characters earn that secret, especially one so close to the main character. You can't even say this was a sequel, because the first film was better, but it also lacked substance. They again went into the action, like we need anymore action films, having a film with substance is a bit much for Hollywood. The 2015 film and the fighting scenes, were not good at all, it all seemed rushed, to flashy, the realism of the guns, and fighting scenes were horrible. 47 was good, but he was almost a robot like, yes he may be incredible, but not indestructible. The game's Hitman was all stealth, but yet in the film, he was open for all to see. The film could've been much more, what if 47 instead of letting himself be caught in the embassy, have him use his stealth like a real assassin would, make the character work for the target. In one scene he used the famous wire, that he uses in the game, that wasn't even used correctly. The film had some good elements in it but, the story fell a part from the start, and by the time you get to the end, the disappointment, i fell off my chair feeling is overwhelming. This film could've been a three part film hit, and yet it fell short, to me this film was your typical Hollywood action film that goes nowhere, except the five dollar DVD bucket. The reeltime movie review has a very different opinion on these type of movies, because i feel that when a film does a video game, it should be done right; Here are movies that i thought bombed. Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros, and Motal Kombat.

Imagine the film was almost like a Born Identity film, do you know the main difference between the two characters, 47 was a talking drone, he was almost a robot.  Jason Bourne on the other hand, had many skills, his memory was lost, the plot in the Bourne films had substance, the audience just gets enough of the story to keep you glued to your chair, unlike Hitman: Agent 47. Jason Bourne was based off a novel, but the film went along the story, Bourne although was good, a super soldier, he still got hurt, felt pain, fixed himself up. Agent 47 was a drone, he had no real speech, his actions were robot like. A clone is a match to another, everything including emotions, depending on the science behind it. 47 was a clone, and if he was to assimilate into society, than he would act human. The assassin part was the unique part of him that makes him who he is, the other part is the stealth, acting like he belongs in a crowd. The mystery of being an assassin is just that a mystery, keep that in complete darkness. The Bourne films had mystery behind all of it's scenes, it came to a close when it needed to. Hitman: Agent 47 had no mystery, it exposed to much, to quickly. Do i recommend watching this, nope check out the Bourne films if you want a story, action, and more.